What was that voice?
Why can't I feel my body anymore?
Why can't I see or hear anything? And why is that stench of rotting meat—the one that made it so hard to breathe—gone?
Am I.. Am l dead?
After.. after death, does only consciousness remain? Do people just become like air, only able to feel?
If I am dead, then how did I hear that voice?
Who was it?
Was it God?
No.
It had said, 'Welcome to the Demon System.'
As I was thinking this, the voice echoed again, scraping against the inside of my skull.
"Wake up. Wake up."
A chilling draft swept over me as my eyes snapped open. I wasn't looking at the cavern ceiling. I was staring down. Below me, illuminated by a sickly, pale light, lay a heap of shattered bones and blood-soaked rags.
It took a horrifying second to recognize my own mangled face staring blankly at the cold stone. Seeing that, I was absolutely certain I was dead.
But then, a strange sensation anchored me. I raised a hand. There was no flesh, no blood—only shifting, pitch-black smoke carving out the silhouette of my fingers.
I was a Shadow, shaped exactly like my physical body, but radiating a dense, dark aura that bled from my edges.
There was no pain here. The agonizing burn of ripped nails was gone. In this form, I felt completely whole. Completely healed.
A grating sound shifted in the gloom. Sitting atop a jagged boulder was a creature that looked older than the abyss itself. Its ash-gray skin clung tightly to frail bones.
Its nails were overgrown into yellowed talons, its hair and beard wild and tangled, smelling of ancient dust as if they hadn't been cut in decades.
The body looked almost human, but protruding from its skull were two sharp, wicked horns.
Strangely, looking at him, I didn't feel any fear. But the moment our eyes met, an overwhelming gravity crushed down on me. My smoke-woven knees slammed into the stone floor without my permission.
My shadowy form bowed down on its own. Like he was the master, and I was the slave.
My consciousness was completely awake, screaming in defiance, but I couldn't speak. I was suffocating inside my own shadow body.
Then, the demon spoke, his voice vibrating through the hollow space in my chest. "I have kept your consciousness alive."
Hearing that, I realized the voice from before belonged to this demon. Before I could process anything else, the demon commanded:
Speak.
Instantly, the invisible weight lifted. Control over my shadow body returned to me, and the words tumbled out desperately—the first questions anyone in my place would have asked.
"Am I alive? Or am I dead?" I asked. "What am I doing outside my body? Why am I in this shadow body? And why couldn't I control my own body just now?"
"You are my Shadow Army," the demon replied calmly. "You are neither dead nor alive. Your soul has merged with my aura. You are now my slave."
"Why did you make me a slave? Why didn't you just eat me?"
"Because I want to make a deal with you."
"Yes, but why choose me?" I asked, confused. "You could have chosen anyone.
"Most humans shatter when they fall into the abyss.
Their minds break before they even hit the ground," the demon said, his voice rumbling like grinding stones.
"But your hatred... your refusal to just die quietly... it kept your soul intact.
You are useful.
He looked at the broken heap of my physical body on the ground, then back at me.
"My time in this form is ending.
I need a living vessel, and you need power for your revenge. Give me your body.
Let me exist within you as a consciousness, and in return, my shadows will become your weapons."
He leaned forward, the darkness bending around him.
"Will you make a contract with me?" the demon asked, his glowing eyes piercing through my shadowy form. Will you become the Vessel of the Shadow?
I looked down at my broken, mangled human body. Trust a demon? The very creatures I wanted to eradicate? It was sheer madness.
But what choice did I have? If I refused, I would remain a helpless shadow forever, a forgotten whisper rotting in this abyss.
Suddenly, my father's wide, greedy smile flashed in my mind, weighing the pouch of blood money.
The black smoke forming my hands tightened into fists.
Yes, I said, my voice heavy with venom. I make a contract with you to become the Vessel of the Shadow.
As soon as the words left my mouth, the demon's massive form dissolved. A torrent of suffocating black smoke surged forward, violently slamming into my shadowy chest.
Agony, far worse than having my nails ripped out, exploded through my core. It felt like liquid fire was burning my very soul.
Through my blurring, tearing vision, I watched my broken human body on the ground begin to forcefully knit back together. Severed veins knotted shut.
Crushed bones snapped violently back into place.
Then, scarlet text slashed across my fading vision, glitching erratically.
[DATA ERROR]
[DATA ERROR]
And then, total darkness swallowed me.
Time lost its meaning.
Then, a cold, mechanical chime pierced the silence in my mind.
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
[SYSTEM UPDATE]
The demon's voice followed, echoing directly from within the deep recesses of my own head.
Open your eyes, Vessel. Open your eyes.
I gasped, cold stone biting into my bare palms.
I slowly opened my eyes. Hovering in the air right in front of me was a glowing, blood-red screen. At the top, it read:
[Vessel Level: 1]
Below that was a list of options and stats: Power, Damage, Health, Strength, Attack—all of them locked at 10.
I sat up.
I was back inside my human body. I could feel the rough, cold ground beneath my hands. Lungs expanded.
A heart hammered against my ribs.
"This is the Demon System," the demon's voice echoed in my mind.
"I am merged with you. You can use this."
Just then, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
The vile, rotting stench of another demon drifted into the air from the darkness ahead.
On the glowing red screen in front of me, the borders pulsed like a heartbeat as new words materialized:
[TARGET VERIFIED]